The Iola Register 
Iola, Kansas  
23 May, 1884

Additional Locals.

    The trial of the Guillilands for the murder of Harclerode and McFarland, took place at Fredonia last week. It began on Tuesday and the case went to the jury at ten o’clock Saturday night. In about two hours the jury returned with a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree as to Hugh Guilliland and his oldest son, and of guilty in the second degree as to the two younger sons. The Counsel for the defense had determined to move for a new trial for the two latter but the matter was compromised by allowing one of them to plead guilty and be sentenced to two years in the penitentiary, while the case against the youngest -- a mere boy of 17 years -- was dismissed. The trial has been much shorter and less expensive to this county than was anticipated and all lovers of justice may rejoice that the law was permitted to take its course.

The Iola Register
Iola, Kansas
18 June, 1886

SEEKING PARDON

NOTICE is hereby given that on July 13th, I will make application to the Governor, at Topeka, for the pardon of Hugh Guilliland and Isaac Guilliland, convicted May 19, 1884, of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to be hanged.
POLLY GUILLILAND.        
Ottawa, June 9, 1886.
    The above notice appeared last week in the Fredonia Citizen, but as it is probably of more interest to the citizens of Allen than to those of Wilson county, we give it the benefit of our circulation. It is hardly necessary to remind our readers of the facts called up by this notice. The Guillilands (father and son) were tried at the May term of court in 1884, at Fredonia, whither the case had been taken on change of venue, and found guilty of murdering Robert McFarland and James Harclerode, of this county. They were clearly proven guilty of cold blooded, premeditated murder, and were justly sentenced to death. Allen county considers it bad enough that under our laws this sentence cannot be executed, but she would consider it an unspeakable outrage to have the ends of justice set aside by the pardon of these men. Fortunately one member of the State Board of Pardons, to whom this matter will be referred, is fully acquainted with all the facts in the case, and there is little danger of the unrighteous petition being granted.

The Iola Register
Iola, Kansas
4 January, 1895

THE WEEK’S NEWS

    Hugh Guilliland has been pardoned out of the penitentiary. The crime of which he was convicted ws the murder of James Harclerode and Robert McFarland on the 25th of Februay, 1884, in Elsmore township, this county, in a dispute which grew out of a claim to 80 acres of land. There seems to be no palliation for the crime, and both Hugh guilliland and his son Isaac were convicted of murder in the first degree and sent to the penitentiary for life. The pardon is probably granted on account of the age of the convict, as he is now 70 years old.

-- transcriptions by Kate Maynard, 2011